Posted on 01/17/2012 8:35:47 AM PST by 92nina
“State [of Minnesota] not rushing to act on Vikings stadium,” fretted the January 13 headline of a column in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. New Jersey billionaire Zygi Wilf, owner of the Minnesota Vikings, is seeking about $700 million in taxpayers’ money to build his team a new stadium in the state.
The $700 million would be roughly split between state and local taxpayers. Members of one proposed site for the stadium have been especially disgruntled by Wilf’s request to take their money for his business. A group in Ramsey County, which includes the state capital of St. Paul, has collected 2,000 signatures since January 6 in an effort to block any special taxes on their county to pay for the stadium.
The group, called The No Stadium Tax Coalition, needs to collect 15,000 signatures by July in order to amend the county’s charter. It would prevent, among other taxes, a 3 percent food and beverage tax on the county.
The prospect of $1.1 billion taxpayer dollars floating around has created a haze through which it is comedic to watch different parties blatantly promoting their own interests.
For example, Zygi Wilf would like his new stadium built in a northern suburb of Ramsey County. It would allow his team to continue playing in the Minneapolis Metrodome in the meantime, where it has been since 1979. If the Metrodome were to be replaced, the team would need to play in a less lucrative locale until construction was completed.
Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Star Tribune stands to make $45 million off the sale of its land if the Metrodome is replaced. It is hard to find news on the issue in the newspaper; most of the paper’s ink is devoted to questioning why lawmakers are not taking faster action...
Read more: http://www.atr.org/wilfare-billionaires-a6687#ixzz1jjW30OM9
(Excerpt) Read more at atr.org ...
Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious
“Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Star Tribune stands to make $45 million off the sale of its land if the Metrodome is replaced. It is hard to find news on the issue in the newspaper; most of the paper’s ink is devoted to questioning why lawmakers are not taking faster action to bring the stadium to their doorstep”
Every local daily supports the building of a taxpayer-funded stadium, regardless of whether a property sale is involved.
Imagine how their daily sales would tank without a local sports section? For many papers, local sports is the only thing keeping them in business.
Rent the field from one of the local high schools.
Oh my, what a username you have...but your point is well-taken, and a valid one.
Cincinnati Ohio has its city and county budgets absolutely wrecked by having agreed to build the Bengals a new stadium.
The sports-loving portion of the public demands everyone pay for their amusement.Let the sports people foot the entire bill.Make the team owners pay to build the playpens or let them go elsewhere.
Would take “Special Guest Star” to a whole new level.
School sports is the largest portionof many local weeklies as well.
Too bad more Americans don’t actually participate in exercise rather than watching others.
“the Minneapolis Star Tribune stands to make $45 million off the sale of its land”
Imagine that! A dying Dinosaur Media outlet pushing for the “quick” action by the state. If they’d have stuck to printing the news, instead of carrying the DFL’s water, they might still be in the news business. See ya, Red Star!
Organized sports is the best thing that ever happened for crooked politicians because sports diverts the public’s attention.
I’m going to play the devil’s advocate here. Zyggi wanted to build an outdoor stadium and foot most of the bill. To pay for the rest of the stadium, the state would have likely issued a tax on players playing in the state of Minnesota and memorabilia taxes. I.E, the public who doesn’t support the stadium don’t have to pay for it.
However, the state of Minnesota wanted to have a giant indoor rec center to replace the aging and crumbling Metrodome. The state wants a brand new giant rec center, but the GOP in the state wants a private person to pay for a building that’s going to be used by the general public. The state will try to host events in a brand new indoor Vikings stadium, paid for by the public or not.
It would be akin to you building a new pizza place in a small town that’s the hangout for everybody in the neighborhood and then having the mayor demand that you allow local chefs to do whatever they want to do at your kitchen.
If the state wants someplace to host its cultural celebrations, golf shows, et al, they should pay for it instead of putting some private citizen on the hook to pay for “the people’s stadium”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.